At the day that the first Gay Pride is held in Kiev, ILGA-Europe expresses its severe concerns about the passing of law amendments in the Committee on Freedom of Expression and Information of the Ukrainian Parliament.

Today ILGA-Europe is launching its very first Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People in Europe 2011 supplemented by the Rainbow Map.

Statement from ILGA-Europe and PICUM:
Today is the International Women’s Day. ILGA-Europe and PICUM are using this day as an opportunity to call for a proper gender mainstreaming in the current negotiations of important European Union policies. We are calling for the EU institutions to include and mainstream gender in all its forms in all its adoption of new legislation and all legislation should automatically reflect all discrimination grounds.

Statement from ILGA-Europe:

ILGA-Europe finds today’s adoption of the decision “On proclamation of the city of Balti zone of support for Moldovan Orthodox Church and inadmissibility of aggressive propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientations” by the City Council of Balti shameful and retrograde.

The European Court of Human Rights says that criminal conviction for distributing leaflets offensive to homosexuals was not contrary to freedom of expression

ILGA-Europe’s Statement on a law on prohibition of the so-called propaganda of 'sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, and paedophilia to minors' and introduction of administrative offense adopted by St. Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly in second reading on 8 February 2012

Yesterday the President of the European Parliament and dozens of Members gathered in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people’s rights. MEPs reiterated their commitment to mark the middle of the current mandate.

The EU has thrown in the towel about protecting discriminated groups, including lesbian, gay and bisexual people, persons with disabilities, religious minorities, youth and older people. A coalition of European equality and anti-discrimination NGOs [1] now calls on the European Commission and the Danish Presidency of the EU to urgently take up this issue.

The closing conference of the ILGA-Europe project ‘Working with the police and challenging hate crimes in Europe 2008-2011’ is taking place in The Hague on 8 and 9 December 2011. The project was funded by the Dutch government and also supported by the European Union.

ILGA-Europe joins its voice on the occasion of the Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20 November. This Day was established following a murder of Rita Hester in 1998 and serves as a reminder of existing prejudice, hatred and discrimination against trans people.

ILGA-Europe’s Statement on a draft law on prohibition of the so-called propaganda of 'sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, and paedophilia to minors' and introduction of administrative offense proposed by St. Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly on 11 November 2011.

Harassment of Transgender Individuals Must End: joint statement by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, GATE - Global Action for Trans* Equality, COC Netherlands, ARC International, Transgender Europe, ILGA-Europe, and STP 2012, International Stop Trans Pathologization Campaign.

On 30 October, the 15th ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference concluded in Turin. 343 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) activists, European and national politicians, representatives of other organisations from 43 countries gathered in Turin, Italy between 27 and 30 October 2011 for the largest annual event on LGBTI rights in Europe.

On 27 October 2011, the 15^th Annual Conference of ILGA-Europe, which is currently taking place in Turin, Italy, received a following message of support from Giorgio Napolitano, the President of the Republic of Italy.

Today the European Parliament adopted a revised version of the asylum directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection and the content of the protection granted. This directive recognises gender identity for the first time as grounds on which individuals can claim asylum in the EU. Moreover, this updates the concept of gender reassignment that was referred to by European law from a process to a stand alone concept.